General Survey of the Young Migrant’s Situation

Author(s) : Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

Source : http://www.jstor.org/stable/2545519

Abstract:

The article outlines a general picture of the situation of second-generation migrants in Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland who have not officially acquired the nationality of the host country, and draws a few preliminary conclusions from the analysis. In the five countries considered, there are about 3,800,000 young foreigners under 25 years of age, 51.5 percent male and 48.5 percent female, representing from less than 40 percent in France and Switzerland to close to 50 percent in Belgium of the total resident foreign population. Nearly 750,000 of them are working, constituting from 14.3 percent in France and Switzerland to 22.6 percent in Belgium of the total foreign labor force, and from 5.8 percent in France and Germany to 11.3 percent in Switzerland of the active population, nationals and foreigners, of the same age. There is a growing propensity of foreign women and girls taking up work. Similarly, in all countries the rate of activity of young foreigners of both sexes is always lower than that of young nationals, whereas the reverse applies in the case of workers over 25. A parallel movement in unemployment among the young nationals and foreigners and second-generation migrants occurs whenever the proportion of job seekers under 25 rises or falls.